A Season For Everything

For everything there is a season…

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (ESV)

Logan’s transition back to the United States

In the popular graduation song Find Your Wings, Mark Harris sings, “It’s only for a moment you were mine to hold…” Our day to day parenting of our third son, Logan, is quickly coming to an end. In little over one month, Logan will be returning to the United States to begin the next chapter of his life. His leaving the island is bittersweet. Bitter in that it means we are losing the day to day companionship of a wonderful son and huge help in everything techy (for us as well as the ministry here) and sweet in that it means Logan is getting to begin the next chapter of the life God has called him to lead.

As we contemplate Logan’s departure and try to enjoy every day we have with him, we can’t help but thank God for the blessing and opportunity we have had in getting to raise this awesome young man. Yes, he was a trying little soul as a youngster, but God has done a miraculous job in molding and shaping him into a godly man, and we are so proud of him. More importantly, we thank God for Logan’s heart and desire to live a life that honors and glorifies his Creator.

We have planned to honor Logan with a simple graduation ceremony and going away party on Saturday, May 31st here in the Bahamas. We are looking forward to Garrett and his girlfriend Abby Huffman, Grandma and Grandpa Mikels, and Aunt Missy joining us to celebrate this time with us. Of course, anyone is invited to come. Let us know if you are interested. If you are not able to attend Logan’s graduation (and that is probably >95% of you), we would appreciate your thoughts and prayers for him.

Upon leaving Nassau, Logan will be living with his grandparents and older brother in Minneapolis, Minnesota and will begin attending the University of Minnesota this fall where he will major in Computer Science. Please pray for him in this time of transition. Besides adjusting to college life, he will be coming off a foreign missionfield which will provide its own set of challenges. We have decided it would not be wise for us all to fly back to Minnesota with him, so he will be going back alone. (Not how we would prefer it to happen, but it is the way it must be.) Pray for our hearts as well. We are going to miss him.

The answer is in

University of Minnesota has decided that Logan will NOT qualify for in state tuition. Wisconsin will not accept him as a Wisconsin resident (which would have qualified him for Minnesota in state tuition) either. This means he will pay $6000 more each year to attend the university as an out of state student. Although this was initially disheartening and disappointing to us, we take it as God’s design for him. We accept it as His perfect will and are confident that He will provide the extra funds needed.

Update

This was suppose to be a blog entirely devoted to Logan’s transition back to the United States, but we thought we would quickly include a picture update as well. Thank you for your interest in our lives and ministry work.

Tom (our maintenance guy) is not able to keep up with all the break downs and maintenance projects here at camp and at the centre because there is just too many things to do, so when the well serving the staff housing/dining hall side of camp quit functioning, Plumber Tim went to work replacing the tank and the pump. It took several days to complete because of mechanical issues with the new pump/assembly and because we were trying to serve a group at the same time. It is now up and functioning. Praise the Lord.

Delhi Alliance Church Mission Team from Delhi, New York came on Friday the 11th. There mission was to serve and bless the ALC&C ministry. They were such a huge blessing to us. Groups that come here on mission teams usually come and work offsite at other ministries. This team (though they did briefly visit All Saints Camp a few days for a couple of hours) ministered at Camp and the Centre. They came along side us and helped lighten our load (a huge timely blessing in that it has been a very busy winter/spring for us). The staff of the ALCentre and Camp appreciate all these people did in helping the ministry here.

Delhi was treated to a planetarium show at the Centre on the day of their arrival.

As is customary, we provided a ALC&C orientation to the group.

Delhi did so much: major cleaning of windows of dining hall and kitchen…

…organizing and inventorying the medical cabinet (this has been on my to-do-list for over a year) and putting together bus first aid kits…

…doing boy staff cottage sofit work and porch / steps construction…

…trench filling…

…painting bathhouse pillars and doors…

…repainting the well house…

…finishing the paint job on the girl staff cottage…

Pastor Keith Wilson got the fun job of operating the Bobcat.

…demolishing the moldy, leaky shower in the camp kitchen apartment to make way for a new tiled, shower…

…cleaning the kitchen which included removing everything from the cabinets and wiping down everything. Dave also cleaned the griddle that was not properly cleaned earlier this year (Yes, that is Coke, and it did the job beautifully)…

…painting the wood on cabins 1 and 2…

…cleaning and organizing the camp office…

…extending the ramp to the laundryroom…

…building stairs up to the attic in the laundry room…

…painting props for the Easter Monday Funday train skit…

…filling Easter eggs for the Easter egg hunt for Funday…

…helping Tika with more of the Funday train skit props…

…helping Jen with other Funday preparations…

…providing TLC to our animals at the Centre (vet tech Jackie and her assistants were such a blessing to the animals)…

…painting some old stools for Ms. Ada…

…spoiling the ALC&C women with a Spa night…

…assisting with programs at the Centre…

…providing lunches to one of the island’s other ministries, All Saints Camp…

…blessing the ALC&C staff with peanut M&Ms (a bag that costs about $8 in the States costs about $26 here)…

…worshiping together…

…fellowshiping together…

…more fellowshiping together…

…sharing a meal…

…and of course making new friends.

On Wednesday, the group took a day off from work projects and went downtown to shop, eat at the Fish Fry and go to Cabbage Beach. That evening, as we like to do with all our big groups, we (Tim, Zach, Logan and me) split the group into 4 smaller groups to tour Atlantis.

Logan with one of his new friends, Ken.

This is Marge Hutter. She is from Delhi but came earlier and left later than the rest of the group because she and her husband are still in Arizona where they live for the winter. God sends certain people in to our lives to bless and encourage us, this lady is truly a godsend.

Marge, knowing Logan was going to be leaving soon, took time to pray with him before she left.

Tearful (?) good-byes after a great week of ministry together.

These 3 young ladies have expressed a desire to come to serve at ALC. Please pray for them as God works in their lives.

While Delhi was here, Boris and Sabrina stopped in for a visit. Boris served in maintenance here back in 2003 and the family lived in the house we currently live in. They are visiting Nassau from Switzerland.

A friend from Tim’s past showed up at camp while in town on a cruise. This is John Fairley from Windsor, Ontario Canada.

We had a volunteer appreciation get together. It wasn’t well attended, but those of us who did attend had a great time together.

Abundant Life Church’s Boys Brigade had their annual cook out at camp.

East Sunday we had the Buntings and Bob and Judi for lunch.

On Sunday evening, we welcomed a group of 4 from Connecticut back to the island to do work with Pastor Wilney Joseph’s church.

On Tuesday evening we invited the Connecticut group to eat dinner with us.

And on Wednesday, they invited us to join them.

Tim has been working on the camp kitchen apartment shower project. He is trying to get the shower up and functioning for Bob and Judi.

Last Saturday, Aaron Mills (we used to work with him at Living Waters Bible Camp in Wisconsin) came for a visit. He has been helping us this week. So far, he has worked on grinding bolts down on the beds so the new mattresses that we should soon be getting won’t be ripped up, installed a wifi extender to the dining hall so Bob and Judi can get internet in their apartment, and fixed the washing machine in the laundry room. He is so handy and helpful. We are thankful for his companionship and all his work.

On Monday, the ALC&C had their annual fundraiser, Easter Monday Funday. We had close to 1100 people come through the gates. It was a long, tiring day, but the weather was perfect and things seemed to work out smoothly.

For your convenience, we have reposted our prayer requests from our last blog. Thank you for praying for us. Prayer is the biggest thing you can do for us. God bless!

Prayer

*Praise the Lord for safety (crime is up on the island) and for the absence of fear

*Praise the Lord for His daily guidance and provision

*Praise the Lord for all the guests we have had the opportunity to serve here at the ALCamp and those served by the staff at the ALCentre

*Praise the Lord for Logan’s academic accomplishments and the scholarships he has received so far

*That God continues to direct our paths and gives us wisdom and discernment as we serve the Bahamian people and those who come to serve the Bahamian people.

*Some unspoken prayer requests/burdens we have

*That God (if He thinks it is in our best interest) raises up more monthly supporters to help close our monthly income-expense gap

*Wisdom and God’s provision as we begin plans to head to the States in late October and early November to visit supporters and make contacts

*Logan as he plans to leave on June 6th to return to the United States permanently

*Zachary as he is beginning his final years of high school and all the college preparations that come with that, also as he goes to the States this summer (June 10-July 15) to visit his best friend in Tennessee and his grandparents in Indiana and aunts/uncles/cousins in South Carolina.

*Adventure Learning Centre and Camp ministry, staff, and facility

*That I (Mindy) continue to find time to complete bookkeeping and preparations for Logan to graduate (ie final transcripts, graduation ceremony details, etc) and head off to college. Also, pray for time to do the necessary bookkeeping to get Zachary enrolled in online dual enrollment courses for next year